Sock Madness - Call for designers!

I love blogland. It has so much to offer to us. In the year since I first started reading the blogs I’ve met fabulous knitters who’ve offered help, encouragement and camaraderie. I’ve found some creative patterns that have provided challenges and enjoyment. I’ve also taken part in a few swaps, KALs and other knitty events. One of these events, Sock Wars, inspired me and now, after months of planning I’m ready to invite you all to take part in Sock Madness. Please go over and check it out.

I hope that Sock Madness will be the kind of event that offers something for everyone – competition, inspiration, excitement and community. It is a tournament style competitive knitting event. Think of March Madness, the college basketball championship or Wimbledon. In February of next year, 128 knitters will sign up to compete against one another in a series of rounds that will culminate in one ultimate winner.

There is a blog with a lot more information and, if I can figure out Photoshop then there will be buttons posted there soon. Of course there will be prizes – at the very least for the ultimate winner and with luck, for many more. I have other cool stuff in mind too. I hope that there will be excitement and people to cheer on the competitors. There will also be original designs.

Original patterns are one of the key elements of this event so I need designers. I would like to use a different original design for each round in this competition. The patterns will increase in complexity and difficulty with each successive round. A new design will be distributed at the start of each round to all competitors – even those eliminated in an earlier round. Access to the great new designs should be reason enough to want to play!

Design for us!

Why?

If you’ve ever wanted to get a design before a large audience – this is your opportunity.

If you are one of the many knitters who enjoys sharing your craft with the community – this is for you too.

Do you still need convincing? Well, the only people who will get copies of the design during Sock Madness will be the competitors. Just think of all the spectators who will watch the matches and crave your pattern. At the close of competition anyone interested in obtaining copies of the patterns will be directed to the designers who may distribute it in any way they see fit. At the very least you’ll get a bit of traffic.

If you’re still not sure then what about yarn? Yes, for one lucky designer there will be a yarn reward.

There are design guidelines listed here. We ask anyone interested in designing to send us a statement of intent to design by November 22. Just send an email to us at at sockmadness at gmail dot com, telling us the type of pattern you want to submit, according to the design guide. Please put the word design in the subject. The patterns will be due January 15, 2007.

Since my co-host (my blogless buddy Felicia) and I will need to test knit the patterns in order to make our selections we’d like to offer an incentive for submitting them early. Here is where the yarn comes in. There will be an early submission date of December 15th. We will choose from among the patterns received by that date and someone will be getting the colorway of their choice from Scout. The final pattern lineup will be set by March 1.

Please go check out the site. There is a lot more information there. Most importantly – please help us make this great and spread the word.